"Kristina Maria Carter!" Kris opened her eyes. She had not heard someone use her entire name in years. She sat up in her bed and looked over. Zac was staring at her, a look of trouble in his eyes. She'd never seen him like that before.
"What?"
"We're going to LA tomorrow." She gave him a look. "We got a call from the studio. They want us over there tomorrow."
"Do I have to go with you?"
"Yes."
"Do I have to go on a plane?"
"Yes."
"Shit." She laid back in the bed and put her covers over her head. "I don't want to go on a plane!"
"Kris, do you remember what's in LA? More like who's there?" She thought about it, then lowered her covers to look at Zac.
"Gwen." He sat down on the bed. "Haven't you been back there since the two of you broke up?"
"No."
"I thought you guys went back?"
"No. We never went back after I left. I haven't seen her since then. I haven't even remotely thought about going back there since then. I don't want to go back." She moved over so he could lay down. He put his head on her pillow, looking away. "I don't know what to do. I don't want to go, but it's really not my choice."
"Zac, don't stress about it. If you go and don't tell her, then she won't know you're in the city. All you have to do is go to the studio and wherever you're staying at. That's it. You don't have to go anywhere else."
"But I want to show you around. You've never been there and there's lot of sites you have to see there when you go for the first time."
"You don't have to. I don't have to look around. And if I do, someone else can always take me. You don't have to do anything you don't want to do." She began running her nails over his back, like she'd done a lot the past week and a half she'd been in Tulsa with them.
"You think she'd find out that I'm there?"
"No. If we don't tell anyone or anything, no one will know. I'm sure she won't find out."
"What if she does and she calls me or something? What am I supposed to do then?"
"Blow her off! Something, just don't waste your time talking to her when you have better things to be doing." She glanced at the clock. "Why the hell are you up and bright so early in the morning?"
"I'm always up at this time. It's just everyone else who sleeps in. When I found out I had to tell you."
"Great. I get to go with you people to LA on yet another plane. I hate planes."
"Kris, they're not that bad. I'm sure it could have been a lot worse if I didn't get the brilliant idea of distracting you."
"Yeah, whatever."
"Okay, say, out of chance I meet up with her. What should I do?"
"First, stop being paranoid about it all. If the chance should arrive, don't let yourself think about her. If you meet up with her then do the same thing you would if she called you. Blow her off. She hurt you and you shouldn't have to handle anyone who can hurt you like that."
"I just don't know if I could be able to face her. I just don't know what I would do. How I would think, how I would act. For all I know I'd probably throw my arms around her and never let her go�"
"Zac, it's not worth it. Let her go."
"I'll try." Kris got up.
"Well, I guess I have to start packing. What's the weather like in LA these days?"
After the flight, Kris walked off the plane in a better fashion than the first time she was off a plane. Zac was gripping her hand for dear life. He knew that it was common for him to take off almost immediately. He wasn't about to leave this time.
"So are you gonna run off?" Diana asked.
"Um, not this time." Diana looked at him strangely. "Well since Kris hasn't been here before Taylor and I are gonna show her around."
"Where do you always run off to? You're gone for hours and you never say anything about it."
"It's not important, I don't go there anymore," Zac said, blowing it off. "So we'll just forget about it."
"Jeez, someone's bitter," Isaac commented.
"Oh just fuck off, Isaac," Zac said. Kris smacked him. Diana turned around.
"What was that?"
'Nothing," Zac mumbled, and pulled Kris away. "Why'd you hit me?"
"That wasn't very nice, Zac. Try to be presentable, please. I know it's uncomfortable for you, but please try. It's not like you're just going to run into her or something." Zac groaned. "Zac, please. For me?"
"Fine."
"Thank you. I wouldn't want a tour of the city with you being bitchy." They walked through the airport, picked up the baggage and stepped outside.
"Oh my God it's so warm here!" Kris said, immediately taking off her coat. She dug through her purse and pulled out her sunglasses.
"You seem prepared for this," Taylor mentioned.
"I figured it would be bright and sunny, but I didn't expect it to by this warm." She removed her sweater and revealed a spaghetti strap shirt. "I dressed just in case."
"You're a nut."
"I know." She turned to Zac. "Will it be okay if you took me to the beach for a bit one day? Only if it's okay with you; I need a tan." Zac stopped and looked at her. "What? This is the whitest I've been in my life!"
"No way. You're a fricken coffee bean. I don't know how much darker you can get."
"Trust me, I can get much worse. That's funny, though, my father always called me a coffee bean when I was a kid." She lowered her glasses to look at him over them. "So can we go? Please?"
"Fine. You're just going to pay if I get sunburned."
"Ah, you people are just wimps. If you stand outside for five minutes you burn Unlike me, who can stay outside all day with SPF 2 and just get brown." She looked over at Taylor. "I don't know if I want you to come."
"Why can't I?" he asked.
"No. You're thinner than I am. I don't want to go to the beach and find out my boyfriend is skinnier than I am. I'll just stick here with buff Zac."
"You're not spending a day at the beach with my brother. I'm not thinner than you are."
"Yes, you are."
"No, Kris."
"Taylor I always told myself that I never wanted a boyfriend thinner than me so we'd have a fight about it. But it happened so I think I'd be better if you just let this one be."
"I'm still going with you."
"Alright. But if you make one joke or one smart remark about me and my Cuban ass I will have to shoot you. I don't care what they'll charge me with, I will shoot you."
"Okay, I'm sorry. Jeez." He made a face. "I didn't mean to be skinny."
"So when can we go?" Kris asked. "I don't know what you people's plans are or anything."
"Well we're not doing anything until tomorrow so I guess we can go today. If there's not enough daylight left you can always go back with mom tomorrow while we're in the studio."
"Okay, we need to get there fast," Kris said. "I love you guys to death but I can't handle spending a day with that woman." Zac ran up and told Diana that they were leaving as soon as they got to the hotel.
Taylor drove to the hotel. They changed quickly and were on the way to the beach by noon. Kris looked out the window.
"I completely forgot what a blue sky looked like," she commented. There wasn't a cloud in bright blue sky as they parked along the beach. There was hardly any people there, mostly because it was early January and apparently it was 'too cold' for the Californians. Being a native to cold weather, Kris had openly laughed when she heard. The weather was a cool 78 degrees, warm for her temperature. When she called Chicago her mother said it was -15 degrees out, and she was snowed inside the house. Kris could laugh at her now; she was at the beach regaining her faded tan over here in sunny Cali.
They found a spot next to the water. Kris laid out a big blanket on the warm sand and shed her outer clothing so she was lying in her bathing suit. Taylor swallowed hard and looked at her. He'd never seen her in a bathing suit before. Zac had taken the opportunity to write on her back with sunscreen.
"What SPF is that?" Kris asked. "I really don't want any. I'd rather stick to the tanning lotion."
"It's 5. I'll just rub it on your shoulders." Zac finished writing I love Hanson on her back. Taylor chuckled and shook his head.
"What are you doing?"
"Writing I love Hanson on your back." Well, she might have a little bit of fun with it.
"Ew!! They're gay!!" Zac gave her a look and pinched her. "Hey!" She looked through the bag of sunscreen for the tanning lotion she brought. She fished it out and gave it to Zac. "Be useful, Zac, put that on my back. I can do the rest."
"Alright." Zac sprayed the stuff on her back and rubbed it in. "This stuff is really making you dark."
"I know. It's supposed to. I don't exactly know why it does it but I know it does." Kris looked at the radio in front of her. She flipped through the channels until she found something of interest. Zac was now laying next to her, watching the waves crash into the shore.
"You gonna go in the water?" Taylor asked, laying on the other side of her.
"Hell no! Oceans scare me. I stick to pools and beaches. There's animals capable of biting my feet off in the ocean." Zac began laughing. "What? It's a perfectly fine phobia."
"Kris, the ocean won't hurt you."
"Yeah, but the creatures in the ocean will." Zac looked at her, amused. She never ceased to amuse him, even if it was just one of her quirks.
An hour had gone by when Kris realized she just couldn't sit there the entire day. To the amusement of the nearly snoozing guys, she suddenly jumped up and kicked sand on them.
"Hey!" Zac said, brushing the sand off him.
"Let's go for a walk." Taylor looked up.
"To where?" he asked, sitting up and looking at her. She was really brown already. They'd only been there an hour!
"There's a pier that way. How bout we walk there and back?" Kris said, pointing to a pier in the distance. Taylor looked over and made a face.
"It's pretty far away, Kris. How bout we walk to that dock and back?" Kris looked to the dock he was pointing at.
"Taylor, it's 10 feet away."
"Exactly." She grabbed him and pulled him up. "It's too far away, Kris! I don't think I'll make it there and back. I'm too lazy."
"Zac, get up. You need to help me drag your brother to the pier." Zac didn't even look at her, just waved it off. "Fine! I'll go to the pier by myself. See you in two hours�"
"We'll go," Zac said, getting up. "Do you need more stuff or are you good?" She looked down at herself.
"Yeah, I could use some more." She grabbed the spray and put in on what she could, then gave it to Zac who put it on her back. "Hey, Taylor, you're getting red."
"Hello, I'm white! I get red. I don't get brown."
"Poor Taylor. Don't worry, I still love you and your pasty pale ass." He gave her a warning glance before running after her. Zac, amused, watched them run down the beach. Kris was ahead, only because she was more up to it. Zac followed far behind, waiting for Taylor to catch up with her. Zac knew that if Taylor really wanted to catch her he could. Eventually, Zac saw Taylor grab her and push her down onto the sand. It was out of a romantic movie or something. The waves crashed along the shore as Taylor kissed her on the beach. The only difference was it was around one o'clock in the afternoon, instead of sunset.
When Zac caught up with them, he kicked them to get them apart. "That's enough, guys. I want to get to the pier before Kris decides we should go further." Taylor pulled Kris off the ground and dusted off her back for her.
"Ew, your back is all slimy."
"Duh, Taylor. It's tanning oil. Oil is oily if you hadn't noticed." Taylor wiped his hands on his trunks, disgusted. "How do you not trip on those things? They're practically to the ground."
"Kris, they're right under my knees, not dragging on the ground. What I want to know is how you're not afraid to fall out of that thing. Could it get any smaller?"
"Actually, I nearly fell out of it while I was running. I don't want big tan lines so I get small suits. It's not that bad."
"You're just lucky we're the only ones here. Otherwise I'd have you put all your clothes back on."
"I could be worse."
"Yes, I guess you could but we're not going there." The pier in the distance looked as far away as it did before. They got a few feet farther when the phone in Zac's hands rang. Kris watched as he answered it.
"Hello?"
"I heard you were in town," Gwen's voice said. Zac stopped. His face went white and he sat down.
"Why are you calling me?" Kris grabbed Taylor and they waited until Zac bothered to look at them.
"I heard you were in town, I just figured that I'd give you a ring and see how you're doing. I mean I haven't stopped thinking about you. I want to see you again."
"Listen, Gwen, I don't know what's going through your mind right now but I thought I made it clear that I didn't want to speak to you again."
"Hold on, Mom wants to talk to you."
"I don't want to talk to her�Hi Megan. Why is Gwen talking to me? I don't want to go through that episode again."
"I completely understand that if you don't want to say anything then you don't have to. So, how are you doing?"
"I'm fine, Megan. Just, God, just put her back on. I need to yell at her for calling me." Kris sat down next to him. He gave her a depressed look. She offered a weak smile. "Gwen, if you haven't realized it yet, I don't love you anymore. I don't care about you anymore. Stop trying this." Kris suddenly grabbed the phone from him. "Hey!"
"I'd appreciate you not trying to live in the past," Kris said.
"Who the hell are you?"
"Your conscience. I'm telling you to fuck off and leave him alone!" She hung up the phone. "Problem solved."
"Thanks."
"You looked like you couldn't say it so I decided to say it for you." Zac ran his hands through his hair, taking in a deep breath.
"Sometimes I wonder if there's something wrong with her," Zac said, and turned to look at Kris. "Why do you think she called?"
"Well, she knew you were in town. I guess she's gotten rid of anybody else and is feeling a bit lonely. For all I know she could be seriously regretting hurting you."
"I doubt it. She was just looking for some booty." Kris cracked a smile and helped him get up.
"Yeah, Zac. She'd really call you cause she was just itching for you and your one-legged soldier." Zac and Taylor looked at each other and started singing.
"Won't you look at the one-legged soldier."
"Oh my God there's actually a song about that?"
"Yeah, we wrote it a really long time ago." Kris looked at them, then immediately burst out laughing. Zac and Taylor watched, a little offended. She fell to the ground, holding her stomach in hysterical laughter.
When she calmed, she looked up a them. "You actually wrote a song about a one-legged soldier? What the hell was going through your mind?"
"Well when we wrote it, it was a story told to little kids about the adventure of a toy, not a sexual innuendo," Taylor said. She stood.
"I have to hear this song. Remind me later that I have to hear it."
"I don't know if I want you to," Zac said. "You're perverted.
"Me?" she asked, innocently. "Why I have a pure mind! It's you people who give me impure thoughts. I mean you completely set yourself up for that one, Zac."
"I don't care what you think, just stay away from me and Pedro." Kris cracked a smile. "Don't start."
"It's funny, in a really immature way. So, are we at the pier yet?" she asked. She looked ahead. It didn't look any closer. "Dammit."
"Can we turn back now? I was perfectly content with laying down instead of walking to a pier that seems to be moving way from us instead of getting closer. I'm tired," Taylor complained.
"We've been walking for five minutes. Stop whining. If it's really that bad then you can go back to our stuff and we'll keep walking," Kris said, turning to Taylor.
"I actually, I kinda wanna go back too," Zac said.
"You people have no adventure!" She sighed and turned around.
"So did you have fun at the beach?" Diana asked, a few minutes after they got back. She looked at Taylor. "Ooh, honey you got burnt."
"I kept telling you to put more stuff on!" Kris said. "No, I have enough! I won't get red! Not me!" Kris groaned and put the bag down. She'd just thrown on her shorts and didn't button up her top, so much of her skin was exposed.
"Kris, you got really dark," she said. "Is that just from today?" Kris looked down at her body.
"Yeah."
"Lucky."
"I know." Kris smiled but Diana gave her a look. "Come on, lighten up!" Her look remained. "Fine, be that way." Kris walked out of the room and into hers. She grabbed a change of clothes and went into the bathroom. Once she got there, Taylor walked in the room.
"Kris?"
She walked out of the bathroom. "You know, it's a good thing I didn't decide to change out here or I'd be really mad at you."
"I'm sorry about Mom�"
"There's nothing to be sorry about. She doesn't care for me, that's all. I understand. I mean it's not like she yells at me all the time. She just gives me a few looks and an attitude. So stop apologizing for something you can't control. I have no problem with her; she just has a problem with me."
Suddenly Zac ran in the room, his face white and a phone in his hand. "Kris, she called again and I told her not to, and I don't know what to do!" Zac blurted out, not caring if he was interrupting. "Help me."
"Is she on the phone right now?" Zac nodded. She held out her hand. He gave her the phone and went onto the balcony.
"Hello?" Kris said.
"Weren't you the girl who I talked to before? What are you doing there?"
"I'm Kris. I'm Taylor's girlfriend. Listen, Gwen, Zac's come to me with a whole bunch of problems concerning you. Why do you keep calling? It's really upsetting him and he's running to me for help."
"What kind of relationship do you have with Zac?"
"I'm his best friend right now. I told you that I'm dating Taylor. I don't stoop that low, Gwen."
"How do you know my name?"
"You're really dense, aren't you? I told you, Zac's come to me with his problems about you. I don't know what he's said to you but I do know you calling isn't helping anything. Why are you calling?"
"I want him back."
"I doubt that's gonna happen. He's spent eight months trying to get over you. This is not helping the process. Please, nothing's gonna happen. I won't let it happen."
"Why?!"
"Because you're indecisive and you hurt him. I don't want to go through all this again!"
"Well, I'll stop calling and I'll leave him alone if you let me see him."
"What? No!"
"Then I'll keep calling until he does."
"And I'll go over there and beat your sorry ass!"
"Just let me see him once. You can come with him. I don't care. I just need to see him again."
"I don't think he'll like it, but I'll try. If not, you need to stop."
"Not until I see him."
"My God you're stubborn. It's not that hard to report you as a stalker or something and get a restraining order."
"Just let me see him."
"Fine." Kris walked back into the room. "Alright, she said she'll stop calling and leave you alone for all eternity if you see her once. I'll be there."
"What? No!"
"Hear that?" Kris told Gwen. "He said no. I won."
"No you didn't. I won. Try again." Kris rolled her eyes.
"Just dot it. It's just once and she'll be out of your life forever."
"I don't know."
"It's not going to be that hard to do. I'll be there and everything. Just for a bit."
"Fine."
"Okay, he'll do it."
"I can't believe I'm doing this." Zac sighed and fell face first onto the bed. Kris smiled. She finished talking to Gwen and hung up the phone. She looked down at Zac. It was pathetic. She laid on the bed next to him.
"At least you'll get rid of her."
"You know I still have feelings for her." Kris nodded. "Why are you doing this to me? I don't know what to do about her! She knows and I know that if I see her again then all those feelings will come back."
"Don't let her know that, alright? I'll be right there next to you." Taylor rolled his eyes and walked out of the room. Kris didn't care that she was ignoring him completely, but she had other things to worry about at that point.
She looked to Zac and smiled.